1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a brush head for cleaning the inside of pipes or hoses made of synthetic resin or metal such as pipes widely used in transporting fluid, powder or grains between apparatuses or plants and heat exchange tubes used in a reactor at nuclear power stations, and to a water turbine suitable for use as a driving source for such a cleaning brush.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pipes used for fluid transportation or heat exchange must be periodically cleaned of scales or dirts adhered to the internal surface thereof. In the case of pipes used for transporting dairy products, wine, or other food products or their materials, the inside of those pipes is periodically cleansed as the residues or the waste of material adhered to the internal surface of those pipes narrows the flow path to cause stagnation and are undesirable in view of hygiene. The heat transmission pipes used for a heat exchanger must be cleansed to remove scales adhered thereto as they impair the heat conductivity. Even at home, pipes of a water boiler for bath should be cleaned of furs as they spoil the pleasure of taking bath.
In the prior art, those pipes are chemically cleaned by passing a cleaning agent through the pipes or are manually cleaned by scraping the dirts or scales with a brush after loosening them with a cleaning agent, or flushing water or a mixture of water and sands therethrough. The cleaning methods above described are problematic in that they are uneconomical as they require a large volume of cleansing water or expensive cleaning agent or that they cannot sufficiently clean all the nooks and the corners in the pipes.
Pipes of a bellow type of which inner surface is not even are especially problematic as they are susceptible to scale adhesion as well as difficult to clean. In the case of long pipes or bent pipes, it is almost impossible for an operator to clean them with a brush, and those pipes cannot be flushed fully with chemical agents or by water injection. In the case where food and/or beverage products are transported through such pipes, chemical agents or cleansing liquids cannot be used for cleaning. A cleaning device which can mechanically clean the internal surface of pipes, therefore, has long been demanded.
As a mechanical cleaning device in the prior art, there has been known a brush which is inserted into a pipe via a flexible tube made of steel and rotated for cleaning by an electric motor located outside the pipe. Such a device, however, is detrimental because it often damages the inner surface of the pipe or its movement is restricted in a narrow space inside a curved or a bent pipe because as the steel flexible tube itself is rotated.
The above mentioned problem might be solved by a small sized driving source which can be freely moved together with the cleaning brush inside a pipe. However, as an electric motor which is compact enough to go inside a pipe can seldom be potent enough to provide a powerful rotation needed for removing firmly adhered scales or can endure severe conditions such as being used in the water, no such device has been put to practice.